Leader of the Pack
by DemonCrowley
Summary: Prequel to the movie, covering the story of our four favorite raptors and their mamma, from the moment they hatch, until the beginning of the movie. There's just lots of raptor cuteness going on. Rated T for strong language and light violence.
1. Chapter 1

**So I watched Jurassic World and I'm HYPED. I thought it was a great movie, but there wasn't nearly enough Mamma Chris and Raptor fluff. Fixing that here. Is basically a little prequel to the movie, concerning the raptors and their alpha.**

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Chapter 1

It was nearly one-hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the goddamn research facility, and even though they had at least twenty engineers walking around, no one thought to fix the air conditioning.

Yeah, it had been a long week for Owen Grady, ex-Navy Seal and current 'Raptor Behavior Specialist and Trainer'.

The biological engineers had produced four perfectly oval eggs. After the first round went horribly wrong, the eggs were looked after constantly, if not in person, then with a camera. So, that was why Owen had been staring at the eggs for quite a while, and that was probably also why they seemed to be staring back at him. He rubbed his eyes, but his sight still wouldn't focus back. Owen had volunteered to monitor the eggs for two reasons:

1\. He was the 'Raptor Behavior Specialist and Trainer' and had no actual raptors to specialize and train right now.

2\. It was very important that the baby raptors saw him as their 'mommy', because that made it easier to train them and become their alpha, which was the end goal. If he could be here when they hatched, he could imprint on them.

He did feel a little like a caged animal, certainly when the park opened and the tourists could pass through the hallways of the research facility, watching everything from the other side of the glass. They wanted to give him a headset so he could play tour guide, but that wasn't really his thing. He didn't really know a lot about dinosaurs and he wasn't feeling like sharing baby names.

It took a whole army of scientist to create these eggs, to revive this extinct species, but all the tourists would care about were gonna be their names and when they were gonna hatch.

Every couple hours, a scientist, or biologist or whatever would come in, wearing latex gloves and a lab coat. He'd walk up to the incubator and turn the eggs around. After three visits, Owen asked if he could maybe take over, and the doctor, named Hu, explained thoroughly what he had to pay attention to. So from that moment on, Owen turned the eggs himself.

That was also where it went wrong the first time round. Not all birds turn and toss their eggs around in their nests, and in all the other cases it went right. It was stupid, trivial that no one thought of it before it went wrong. The first three eggs never moved until they started hatching, and the raptors inside showed severe deformities. Two of them never even made it out of the egg. The third one missed a couple of toes on his claws and his right foreleg was glues to his body. Owen had started bonding and training with him immediately anyway, to ensure he was mentally healthy, might he make it through those vital first weeks. Raptors are pack animals and bringing up pack animals alone is a dangerous thing to do, even when the beast has never known any better.

Vic Hoskins, leader of the iNGen security project, proposed to 'get rid of the thing'. He said it with this awful neglect, even hate towards the hatchling, as if he blamed the beast for being born all wrong. He proposed to kill the raptor the same way you would kill a tumor or a fever, because you'd have to get rid of it before it spreads. Also, nobody would want to see an imperfect dinosaur, and the little raptor would be useless for the training schedule because of his limp.

But, because they had hired Owen for the training, he made the final decisions concerning the raptors.

He'd named the little thing Alphie and spent as much time near him as he possibly could. The mutated raptor did cause some rise in visitor rates, and he got stronger every day.

But after a few weeks, reality caught up on Alphie and Owen. The raptor seemed to have trouble breathing, and after a short examination (by a slightly wary biologist), they concluded that his lungs stuck together like thighs to plastic chairs.

Owen wanted to fight. There was a whole research facility! Doctors and medicine and money galore! Surely they could do something?

The scientists and biologists and doctors told him they had done everything they could, but there was no way to save little Alphie. Owen bought none of that, but he had to give in, he couldn't do it himself.

Needles were useless on dinosaurs, their skin was too thick to penetrate with such a thin and delicate prick.

That was why they still used live ammo, until they would find a needle strong enough to go through the thick, rubbery skin, but not so big and sharp that they would cause the dinosaurs excruciating pain.

Even though Hoskins offered to do it for him, Owen would not let anyone near Alphie. He would do it himself. It was his call to keep Alphie alive. He should be seeing it through to the end.

Bullet to the brain, and all would be over in a split second. Owen Grady was a former Navy SEAL. He'd been deployed three times and had seen many friends and enemies die in battle, or fighting their injuries in a makeshift hospital. He was a seasoned, hardened man, a veteran, but saying goodbye to this stupid little animal felt like a punch. In the face. With a brick.

Pulling the trigger wasn't the hardest thing. Owen was used to pulling triggers. He could turn everything off and do it with the same automatism as eating, or walking. But looking Alphie in the eye, seeing that he was hurting, breaths labored, and simultaneously seeing trust and hope, nearly broke his heart.

Owen Grady stroked Alphie's grey green scales, scratching the soft spot underneath his misformed right foreleg one last time, before he put the gun to the poor baby's head.

He swallowed. _Grady, you're a big guy. Shit happens, so get a grip._

Click. Safety off. He cocked the gun.

Softly, he squeezed the trigger, still stroking Alphie's legs. The Raptor was snoozing, eyes closed, completely trusting his 'mother'.

Owen was glad he'd put a silencer on it, because the recoil was bad enough to deal with. Alphie went limp in his arms, the way he'd go limp when he was sleeping, completely relaxed. Owen put the dinosaur down on the grass and unloaded the gun, stuffing it back in his backpack.

He wrapped Alphie in a blanket that he had brought for that purpose. Hoskins then entered the small paddock, and demanded that Owen handed the raptor over for section.

It disgusted Owen a little bit, but he let Hoskins take Alphie away anyway. It was just a body. What was he gonna do, put it in the ground?

He let the PR-team know about the deceased Velociraptor and left for his cabin on the outskirts of the island.

And now he was standing here again, in the goddamn, hundred degree research facility, waiting eagerly for the new 'asset' to start hatching. The eggs were boring, all the same grayish color that reminded him of wet cardboard and newspapers.

He yawned. Ensuring that these raptors would hatch in a warm nest with someone to look after them made spending all his time here worth it, even thought he was longing for a breath of fresh air, and maybe even a cigarette. He quit smoking years ago, but being cooped up in here for so long made him long for a drag of nicotine again.

Coffee helped big time. When he decided to quit, right after he returned from his third deployment, he would buy himself this huge Starbucks Frappuccino with so much chocolate he couldn't even taste the coffee any more, but he would only treat himself on days where he hadn't compensated his craving for nicotine with eating. So every time he wanted a smoke or when he got food cravings, he'd get himself coffee to remind himself that on his way back home he was going to get a huge ass Frappuccino and it helped him through the day.

Owen turned his back to ask if they could bring some coffee up, when he heard a cracking noise behind him.

There was a fracture on the egg on the left, only as thin as a hair. In movies, hatching was always over in a split second. The little baby animal makes a crack in the egg first and then violently bursts through the shell mere seconds later. In reality, a regular chicken egg can take up eight hours to hatch. It took Alphie nearly fifteen hours. He hoped these raptors were stronger and would break their eggshells faster, but he had no idea.

Owen turned back around again and pressed the call button.

"Hatching has begun," he said casually. "And can someone _please_ bring up a double shot espresso?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I'm really sorry it took so long... My Beta was on holiday and I don't feel confident posting something before she read it, but here's the next chapter, and I'll post more regular from now on!**

Chapter 2

Hatching altogether took five hours, surprisingly short, but Owen was happy about it. The doctors and scientists (and tourists) all observed from a distance, taking great precaution to stay clear of the incubator.

Owen already hovered over them like a hen, and they hadn't even hatched yet. When they did hatch, he left them be for a bit before cleaning them and making sure they were warm enough.

When they had all hatched and were cuddled up in their nest together, Owen opened the hatch so the doctors could check them up and insert their tracking device. Their skin was still tender, so the needle went in easy. They squirmed a little bit, but seemed fine. When the doctor said they were perfectly healthy, Owen could finally admire his babies up close (and feed them. Boy, they were hungry).

This time, there were no deformities, no extra limbs or missing limbs. Owen smiled. These babies would make it through. They even were kind of cute, he thought, seeing one of them nibble on a rat's tail. The smallest one kind of retorted that by coughing up a giant hairball.

To make things less complicated, the scientists had made sure all four little raptors were female this time. A male might be a little too much for Owen to handle in his battle to become alpha of the pack.

"Hello girls," he cooed. He scratched one of the raptors under her chin. She had blue stripes across her back. Owen frowned and turned back to one of the doctors. "Is it a problem that she's blue?"

The doctor shook his head, it was the guy who showed him how to turn the eggs. "No," he said. "We probably made a mistake, but it doesn't really affect her health."

"A mistake?" Owen turned back to the raptor babies. "You're not a mistake, you're just a little blue!"

He chuckled. "Shall we take them to their paddock?"

The doctors nodded approvingly and one of them went to get a carrier, but Owen shook his head and gathered the raptors up in his arms. "I'll carry them."

"That is probably a bad idea," one of the doctors said.

Owen did it anyway. He gathered the four babies up in his arms. The blue one nipped at his ear with her razor sharp teeth, and Owen turned his head, quick enough to dodge her before her jaws snapped together.

"Let's get one thing straight," he said harshly. "No biting me, okay? You bite your sisters and your food, but not your papa, clear?"

She cocked her head and purred a little.

"Yeah," Owen said.

He could feel eight little claws in his arms and chest, but that didn't really hurt him. They were only searching for a bit of grip.

He put the raptors in a box that he'd already put in the front seat of his car. Owen preferred to cruise around the island on his motorcycle, but it wasn't the best way to move newborn raptors around.

He was pretty sure there was a protocol about moving 'assets out of containment', but Owen couldn't care less. The raptors couldn't and wouldn't hurt anyone yet, they were too small and helpless. Owen left the AC off, so the little ones could keep warm easier. The temperature outside was perfect for them, and he didn't want to start his weekend off by giving his raptors a case of pneumonia.

He whistled a tune, happy that everything went all right. It would take him about half an hour to reach the raptor paddock, but he didn't mind driving this evening. The training could finally start.

In the raptor paddock, he'd built a nest. They guessed that usually, mother raptor would be hunting all day and bring them food every now and then. The little raptors could easily fend for themselves for a couple of hours.

They never ceased making noise, and Owen had a lot of fun discussing with them.

"What's wrong, little one?" He asked the gray raptor after a rather loud belch. She belched again. "Are you hungry?"

The blue one was the biggest, but only just. The brown raptor was just a little smaller.

"How about some names, huh?" Owen proposed. "Before the others turn up and start naming you D4 or something weird like that."

The blue one cooed.

"Yes, you're the easy one." Owen grinned. "Blue."

He was silent for a bit. "We could do Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo…" he said.

Bravo cooed again.

"Yes," Owen nodded. "That's a great idea. I'm the alpha right, so it'll make tons of sense!"

He looked at his pack. Charlie, he decided, was the green one with dark stripes, and also currently chewing up the blanket. Echo, the brown one, was ripping at the cardboard box. Delta had gotten hold of the seatbelt and Bravo was staring at him, head cocked like a pigeon. He fumbled his hand in the box. "Girls, please! You can chew up the nest all you like but not the car. It's not mine, see."

The radio started hissing, and Owen turned the receiver on.

"Mr. Grady? Control room for Mr. Grady?"

He picked up the intercom. "This is Owen Grady for control room. Over."

"Mr. Grady…"

"Owen," Owen interrupted the lady. He'd had enough 'Mr. Grady's' at the Navy.

"Owen…" She said. "Did you take the raptors out of containment without following the protocols? You are aware that these are wild animals? Over."

Owen scratched Bravo under her chin. "I'm nearly at the paddock. They're babies, they won't hurt anyone. Over."

"Can you be sure of everyone's safety? Over." The lady asked.

"Of course I can," Owen grinned. "These girls are not even three inches long, head to tail. _I_ could eat them, instead of them eating me. Over."

"Yes, adorable," the lady sounded a little annoyed. "I want them in the paddock. I will not risk incidents. Over."

Owen swung the car around the corner and stopped in front of the raptor paddock. It consisted of three parts, that could all be opened and closed separately. The nest was in paddock one. When the raptors got big enough to paddle around for a bit, the gates to the second part of the paddock would open. Then, after they had fully grown, a hatch in the paddock's walls would open, so that the raptor pack could mingle with other dinosaurs in the jungle.

He jumped out of the car, walking around to grab the box of newborn raptors. He opened the door and chuckled when he saw Echo had already devoured three walls of the box.

"Echo! You're not supposed to eat cardboard!"

The raptor cooed happily, pieces of wet box between her teeth.

"You cutie," Owen gathered the babies back up in his arms. Charlie and Delta settled against his chest, but both Echo and Bravo nearly trampled their sisters to get to his neck and shoulders. "Down girls," he said, pushing the two raptors away with his chin. Bravo yapped at his earlobes again, and Owen pinched her tail in response. "I had a girlfriend who liked doing stuff like that, and that relationship was over quickly. So I'm telling you for the last time now, I'm not into biting!"

"So, does talking to them help the bonding?" he heard a voice behind him.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Owen turned to the lock, typing in the eight digit code with his little finger.

"Uhm, not really…" The lady sounded a little hesitant. Owen looked over his shoulder, she was very beautiful, maybe a little too stiff for his liking, but she had a very petite looking face, and some beautiful red locks framing it.

"Okay," Owen grinned, turning back to the cage door. "Well, I kinda got my hands full right now, how about we talk about it over a cup of coffee?"

"Is the process that complicated?" the lady asked, clearly _not_ picking up on his hints.

Owen chuckled. "Follow me, I'll show you something,"

"I'd rather not approach the assets that have any risk of attacking," The lady said.

"Assets?" Owen frowned. "Animals. Living beings." When the woman's face didn't show any sign of understanding, he sighed. "These girls are not going to attack you yet. In six months they're lethal, but until then you can approach them."

"Still rather not." She said.

"Then why are your even here?" Owen said. Echo started scratching his leather jacket impatiently. "Hold up, I'm gonna put the ladies to bed and then we can talk normally."

The lady nodded. "I have a device here, you need it to scan their chips so we can put them in the system individually."

Owen wiggled his hip, and she looked a little confused. "Put it in my pocket," he clarified.

Her face cleared up, and she slid the thing in his pocket.

He turned away. "See you in a bit. Don't go away."

She shook her head. "Don't take too long!"

"That's what she said," he muttered under his breath, crossing through the paddock to the nest with long strides (Echo's claw was kinda hurting him).

"What?" she yelled after him.

"Nothing!" Owen said. He pushed some vine leaves away and put the girls down in the nest, making sure they were all comfy. He took the device out of his pocket and scanned Bravo's chip.

 **ENTER ASSET SUBJECT:** , the screen read. A keyboard appeared on the touch screen.

He entered 'BRAVO', and pressed enter, but a pop up appeared on the screen.

 **ASSET SUBJECT DOES ALREADY EXIST. PLEASE PICK A DIFFERENT ONE.**

And then under it:

 **SUGGESTED ASSET SUBJECTS: BRAVO-04, BRAVO-FOUR**

"Dang," he said to Bravo. She looked up at him. "You already exist! What is this, a video game?"

Bravo clicked and cocked her head.

"So, we need a different name…" Owen sighed. "It sucks that it won't fit the pattern anymore, but we could just go with Blue?"

Bravo cooed happily, and even though she probably had no idea what they were discussing, Owen would've sworn she nodded.

"Blue it is," he said, and entered her new name in the 'Asset subject'.

He then made a profile for the other raptors, who did not yet exist. So they could all keep their original names.

"Good night, girls!" he said, turning away.

Delta croaked after him, but stayed in her spot.

Owen walked back to the lady, who was still waiting, and closed the gate, locking the entrance carefully. "So, how can I help you?"

"Please don't kidnap any of the park's assets, Mr. Grady." She said.

Owen sighed. It was the lady from the radio. "O-wen," he said. "Seriously, what are we in, a military camp? Do you want me to call you ma'am?"

The lady extended her hand, completely oblivious to the sarcasm. "You can call me Miss Dearing. Claire Dearing."

Owen shook it. "Owen Grady."

"I knew that," she said.

"I know you knew," Owen retorted. He handed her back the device. "I gave all the girls a profile. It's for medical reasons, right?"

Claire nodded. "Yes," she checked it. "Did you put them in by the NATO alphabet on purpose?"

"Initially not," Owen shook his head. "I gave them all names, and this was easier."

"But you got Charlie, Echo, Delta and… Blue." She frowned. "That's really inconsistent."

"Does it bother you?" Owen grinned.

Claire nodded, in all earnest. "Yes, it does. Shall I change her name to Bravo in the files?"

Owen laughed out loud. "She was called Bravo in the first place, but the name was already taken."

"Oh," Claire frowned. "Well, it's better like that, to avoid confusion."

"I think it's cute," Owen said.

Claire smiled and tapped away at the device. "Why start at B though? Why not just at Alpha?"

Owen's smiled faltered when she said that, but he swallowed the tinge of pain in his chest, and quickly made something up. "Because I'm supposed to be alpha."

Claire nodded, "Well, now that we've got that settled, I'm heading over to PR. If I get the message out tomorrow, we might get through the after Christmas dip a little bit better."

"Yeah, Christmas." Owen grinned. He'd almost forgotten that Christmas had been last week. New Year's was coming up too, but it didn't feel like New Year's. He was used to cold and bitter winters, instead of no winters at all. "What did you do?"

"What, for Christmas?" Claire put the device in her bag and started towards her car.

Owen nodded. "Yeah, did you like, go out? Do you have a family?"

"No," Claire said, but then she corrected herself. "Well, yeah, I have a sister, but I haven't seen her in a few years."

"So… you spent your Christmas alone?" Owen mounted his bike, which was parked next to Claire's car.

"No, of course not!" Claire opened the car doors. "There was a cocktail party."

Owen chuckled. "A cocktail party. Cute."

He started his motorcycle with a roar. "Well, I'm gonna go, if you need me, you know where to find me."

And he drove back home, to get a good night's sleep for like the first time in forever.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys... I went to Austria. It was awesome, but also on a mountain in the middle of nowhere so I didn't get a chance to update.  
I have a small, non fic related question. Is there anyone reading who is native to or fluent in Russian? Both the speech and the alphabet? My friend and I are writing a short movie and need someone who can help us translate a few things and teach us a few short sentences...  
PM me please!**

 **And enjoy this chapter ;)**

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Chapter 3

Owen was sitting in the middle of the nest, force feeding Delta. She was the smallest of the four and usually Blue and Echo would snatch her food away from in front of her. In the beginning she fought, but now she seemed to have given up on food altogether.

"Atta girl," he cooed, when she licked the rat's ribcage clean. He softly scratched the tender scales behind her jaw.

Blue cocked her head, a little jealous, and Owen softly nudged her. "Don't be like that, you're the one that steals her food away,"

Blue made a clicking sound and nuzzled her beak into his side, clawing at his shirt to catch his attention.

"You know," Owen sighed, "You're being really obnoxious. I'd almost say you were _craving_ my attention."

Blue pulled back immediately, growling.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Owen chuckled. "Well, I'm going out for a bit, be nice to your sisters."

Blue cooed indignantly.

"Echo! Charlie!" he called. The two other raptors weren't far away, and they came scurrying towards him immediately. Echo had a small bird between her teeth. "Hey girl! What did you catch?"

She growled happily and presented him the dead bird. Owen patted her on the head affectionately. "Good girl," he said, smiling. He grabbed his duffle with all the stuff that he needed to take care of his pack, and went away, but he felt something hang onto his jeans.

He turned around. It was Echo. She cooed, a little offended and Owen sighed. "Seriously? You can keep it if you want…"

Echo nudged the bird in his direction, making that rumbling, rolling sound in the back of her throat.

"Fine, fine," Owen picked up the dead bird. "Thank you, I appreciate your gift and will throw it out as soon as I get out of sight."

Echo roared happily when Owen picked up the dirty, bloody bird by its left wing. "Sure you don't want to eat it yourself?"

Echo roared again and Owen shrugged. "Okay, fine." He hoisted the bag up on his shoulder and walked towards the gate.

When he was outside, he turned to see if Echo wasn't looking, before tossing the dead bird over his shoulder.

"Holy…!" he heard behind him.

Owen whirled around, hands up. "O my God, I'm so sorry, I…" but he didn't get that much further when he recognized the person standing in front of him (with a dead bird in his hands).

"Barry? Is that you!" he hugged his old friend. "How are you doing?"

"Good, good!" Barry grinned. "Still mourning the loss of my leg, but well, I'm adapting."

Barry did indeed limp a little, but it was nearly unnoticeable. He'd lost his leg in a firefight during Owen's second deployment. They were close comrades and stayed connected after that, but Owen got deployed again and Barry had to stay behind, and they didn't have the chance to call or meet up, especially when Owen got the job at Jurassic World. But now these two close friends were reunited again.

"So," Owen said, "What did you do after 2011?"

"Revalidate," Barry said, "And study."

Owen laughed, but stopped when Barry raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you're serious?"

"You studied, too…" Barry said.

"Yeah," Owen shrugged. "But you just don't look like the person to study."

Barry laughed too. "I'm not, you're totally right, but it helped, really. Made me feel I was doing something that mattered."

"What did you study?" Owen asked. He stopped at his motorcycle and looked around to see how Barry came to the paddock. Barry stopped at a quad, so they could ride back to Owen's together. "Come back to my place for lunch?"

Barry nodded, mounting his quad. "Yeah, cool. Uhm, I studied in a zoological facility in the southwestern part of France for a while."

"Did you know I was here?" Owen yelled over the sound of the engines. "Follow the signs to the old park, and when I raise my hand we're gonna go left, okay?"

Barry did a thumbs up, indicating that he had heard his friend. "I didn't, until I saw your name on the list. Why did they ask you for the raptor program?"

"I think Vic Hoskins thought I wasn't gonna be much trouble," Owen shrugged. "Because he's got plans for them. I can feel it in my bones."

"Maybe it is just because he thought you were competent for the job." Barry shrugged. "You always seemed like a type of guy that you could throw in front of the wolves and then would return leading the pack."

"Ew," Owen laughed. "That came straight off some hipster's Tumblr page."

"What's a Tumblr?" Barry asked.

"It's a popular website where…" Owen sighed. "Tumblr sucks, let's leave it there. Left here."

They turned left onto Owen's driveway and parked their vehicles. "Mi casa les tu casa."

"I can hear you paid attention in Spanish class," Barry grinned.

"Couldn't help the teacher was hot," Owen shrugged and pulled some stuff out of the fridge to make sandwiches. "At first it was really weird to, like, sleep on the same floor as you live, but you get used to it. And apart from the veranda, I never have to walk stairs anymore, which is the best thing ever."

"It's showing on your hips," Barry teased.

Owen touched his legs, pretending to be embarrassed. "Oh please!" he squealed. "I've been laying off the chocolate!"

They both laughed.

He threw something easy together and took it outside where he had a stolen picnic table from the park. "So, how did your life go?" he asked Barry. "With your leg and your studies?"

"You were there when it got blown to bits," Barry shrugged. "It always seemed so weird to me, because the way I remember it, you looked like you were in more pain than I was."

Owen laughed. "Your leg got blown off. I was scared to death. I don't think I've ever been more scared in my entire life."

He didn't just think that, though, he knew. Sometimes, his mind replayed the images so vividly he couldn't distinguish real from fake. One day it would be his leg, or they were too late and they couldn't save Barry, or everything would happen the exact same way and it was still horrifying.

"Well, you know that story." Barry took a big bite from his sandwich.

"They cut everything below your knee off and shipped your ass back to the USA," Owen grinned.

Barry nodded. "Yes, so then revalidation began. The girlfriend broke up with me. Said she couldn't deal with it. I was so devastated. She couldn't deal with it? I was the one with the missing leg, right?"

"Can I ask a really weird question?" Owen asked.

Barry shrugged. "Try me."

"How's one-legged sex?"

Barry laughed. "A little hard in the beginning, but you have to see it as an advantage."

Owen was laughing too, now: "Oh God, I didn't actually expect a real answer."

"Careful what you wish for," Barry grinned. "Anyway, after that I decided I didn't want to work with people anymore, so I studied to become a vet. Then I heard there was a job opening here and I couldn't resist to apply. I knew every dinosaur by name when I was a kid, and to take care of them would be a great honor."

"Yeah," Owen said. "There's one thing I don't get though. There's all these doctors, and engineers and scientists, why can't _they_ just make sure the animals stay healthy?"

"They can," Barry nodded. "But they'd rather do it from a distance. I get in the field to do the dirty work. Set bones and bandage cuts, stuff they feel they are too good for."

"But so are you!" Owen protested. "Veterinarian studies, that's not just anything!"

Barry shrugged. "I guess the dirty work is just my kind of work. I want to be near the animals, really help them, relieve their pain and dress their wounds. I wanted to work with animals, and that sort of means I want to work _near_ animals."

Owen chuckled. "Yes, well, it _is_ the best thing about my work."

"Tell me something about the raptors," Barry asked. "I'm their nurse from now on."

"They're still too young to develop a real pecking order." Owen said. "They're all equal now and I'm their mummy, but when they start growing and fighting, that's when the pack really starts to form, and when they realize I'm not leaving, they'll ultimately challenge me to a fight. If I don't have them under control then, I'm done for."

"But surely you won't approach them after they grow too big?" Barry frowned.

"No!" Owen shook his head. "Around six months they'll reach my hip, and that's also when they start to become more territorial, so I'll have to make sure they listen to me by then."

Barry laughed out loud.

"How about I show you around the tourist part of the park for a bit?" Owen proposed. "They have his show where they feed an entire shark to a Mosasaurus, and the hamster globes are my absolute favorite!"

"The hamster globes?" Barry grinned.

"Yeah," Owen chuckled. "They call them 'Gyro spheres', but it's basically a hamster ball you get into and then you tour around the Valley for a bit in the thing. I did it once, it's great fun."

"Okay," Barry shrugged. "I think it would be nice to see the park as a tourist before I actually start working. Might ruin the experience."

Owen got up. "Cool. I'm going to wash up for a bit and put on some fresh clothes."

He climbed the veranda and entered the bungalow, but before he'd even reached his bedroom, he swung back around peeking around the corner.

"I get to drive the hamster ball!" he yelled.

"Owen!" Barry exclaimed, jumping up. "But _I_ want to drive the hamster ball!"


End file.
